D.A. hits Chester streets; shootings continue

CHESTER — A report of three gunshots fired in the area of 21st Street and Edgmont Avenue at 6:23 p.m. Thursday was checked and then cleared by Chester police officers.

“No victim, no casings, nothing was found,” police Maj. Alan Davis said of the incident, which was reported about 40 minutes after Mayor John Linder and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan had finished a meet-and-greet with about a 100 residents and their children in the same neighborhood.

They were among a group walking door-to-door in neighborhoods nears 21st Street and Edgmont Avenue, talking with residents to hear their concerns before attending the Chester Ministerial National Day of Prayer event in Martin Luther King Park.

Advertisement

It was the first in a series of neighborhood walks Whelan has planned for the summer. Typically, he is joined by members of the D.A.’s office, the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division, and officers from the host municipality.

According to Whelan, the group left the area in the city’s East End at about 5:45 p.m.

Whelan declined to comment about the subsequent shots-fired incident late Thursday, other than to say he had heard about it, but was uncertain as to the exact location.

Linder was aware of the incident and used it was an example of the ongoing gun violence that is plaguing the city.

“It proves a need to do some real serious work to get these shooters, these guys willing to shoot at random, off the streets,” Linder said when contacted by phone late Thursday.

“I’m just glad no one was hurt,” the mayor added.

As for the neighborhood walk,” Linder said, “It was as safe as it could be.”

Calling the exchange with residents a success, Linder said he would not let the shots-fired incident hinder that, or interfere with any future visits.

Linder estimated the group visited as many as 100 residents, both inside and outside their homes, all within a four to five square-block area along Edgmont Avenue, between 21st and 23rd streets. The group arrived at about 4 p.m.

Linder said he “absolutely” planned a return visit.

“We are the people who want to help,” he said. “We have to go back.”

For an elderly woman whose car and home on nearby West 22nd Street was sprayed with bullets Wednesday night, any opportunity to air her quality-of-life concerns with city/county officials is a move in the right direction.

Police have no reason to suspect the house shooting on West 22nd Street and the shots-fired incident are connected, though both incidents remain under investigation.

“They need more police, staties and anybody else they can get in here,” she would tell Linder and Whelan, if given the chance. “I also think they need more neighborhood watches.”

When informed that Pennsylvania State Police troopers, or “staties” as she called them, would be returning as part of a broader anti-crime initiative city and county officials plan to announce next week, she said, “That’s good.”

She just had one question: “When?”

Friday afternoon, the woman admitted she was feeling much calmer about the shooting. “I’m mad,” she said.

The septuagenarian, who asked to remain anonymous as a safety precaution, believes she knows why her home was targeted.

“It’s probably a message,” she said. “They think I’m a snitch.”

The woman resides in the house with her grown children.

One of her sons was at home and in the basement when she went to bed, at about 10 p.m. Because of medication, she falls asleep quickly.

“He came up and told me the house was just shot up,” she said. She estimated the time between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m.

She knew she was awakened by some loud noise, but she was too groggy to recognize it as gunfire.

“I was just in a daze, even when the cops came,” she said.

The woman and another one of her sons Friday pointed out the damage – beginning with the bullet holes in the outside front bricks. Inside, they showed the holes in the front and screen door, as well as the shattered panes of the two front windows.

She pointed out a flower arrangement on the living room table. Part of the wicker handle was blown off.

“Here’s another one,” she said, looking up to a hole in the ceiling in the living room. On a living room wall just above the big-screen TV, are four holes. And most of the glass on the curio in the corner to the right of the television is gone – as are some of the woman’s precious keepsakes.

In the kitchen, there’s another hole in the wall, ceiling damage, and a broken window pane.

The woman said the wire to her landline telephone was also damaged.

“One of the officers said it was an AK-47,” the woman’s son said.

With 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, she said, “I thank God (the shooting) wasn’t on a day I had them here.”

She closed her eyes just thinking about what could have happened if they had been sleeping on the living room floor.

“I never had nothing like this happen to me,” she said. She has lived in Chester for 46 years, 29 in the West 22nd Street row home.

“I used to love Chester … it’s amazing how it is today. It’s enough to make my eyes tear,” she said.

“I never had any enemies, but I guess I do now.”

The woman said she is no longer opposed to moving, which is something her sons have long wanted her to do. But she will not let this incident stop her from ever doing what she believes is right – and that includes calling the police to report a crime.

“I’m not going to back down,” she said. “I’m too strong for that.”

Though it’s only been a few days, the woman said she already feels frustrated by what she considered as a lack of police attention since she filed the report.

City police Detective James Nolan said officers were dispatched to the house on Wednesday at 11:31 p.m. Among the recovered evidence were four spent rifle casings and seven spent 40-caliber handgun casings, all of which will be analyzed through the Integrated Ballistics Identification System.

“Police are actively pursuing a motive but none has been established,” he said.

Given some of the recent outcries against police by residents at various anti-violence meetings, vigils and even online, the veteran law enforcement officer suggested that some of that energy would be better expended toward supporting victims and witnesses as cases wind through the court system.

The more support, he believes the more likely residents with pertinent information would come forward and aid police.